Masked
by nicolethegreat
Summary: Blaine hides behind a mask, refusing to let anyone else in. Sam decides that he needs to know the truth. What happens when Blaine doesn't want him to know? Well, he's about to find out.
1. Coffee

**When I see Blaine, I see him as someone with a past worse than Kurt's past and I see him wearing a mask to hide everyone from it. When I see Sam, I see him as vulnerable and willing to believe anyone. Put the two together and, well, we'll see. **

**Set a few months after Blaine transferred to Dalton, towards the end of his freshman year.**

There it was again. It had gone up like a brick wall in front of the ocean, meant to block its view. However, the reality of it was different. Unlike with a brick wall covering the ocean from passerby's looks, it was still known that the ocean was behind it. It had been seen before and could still be seen if it was looked for hard enough. Behind the wall, the ocean still existed. Blaine had put a wall up that mirrored the brick wall protecting the ocean only too well. His emotions were hidden behind it.

Sam knew that Blaine was hiding something. He had seen the brief look that Blaine had before he put up his wall, put the mask on his face that was meant to keep everyone out. Sam knew that he was not supposed to see the brief look that Blaine had showed him. For a short second, Sam even considered pretending that he had missed it, if only to avoid the tears and the arguing that would come from the questions about why he had put the wall up again.

Again. If only it had been the first time that Sam had seen the wall, or mask, as he preferred to think about it as. Then he would have followed his first instinct to pretend that he missed the look. No, he knew that he couldn't pretend anymore. He had seen the look too many times before. It only came up when he mentioned the past to Blaine, as if there was something to hide. And every time in the past, Sam either pretended to have missed the look or he had put up a weak argument as to why he should be given an explanation, only to be told by Blaine that it was nothing to worry about. In the second scenario, Blaine always was quick to the point, never letting up any details that had no dyer need to be said, and he always left out anything personal.

Truth be told, it was making Sam extremely annoyed.

"Blaine…" Sam warned softly.

Blaine pulled his coffee up to his lips and took a quick drink of it. "Yes, Sam?" he asked, his tone just as normal as always. He placed the coffee down on the table and folded his hands together, looking in to Sam's eyes after his hands were secure together. He let out a small grin to try to reassure the boy opposite him but it did nothing to make him any more uneasy.

The dirty blonde boy fidgeted slightly in his seat, not enough for it to be noticed by Blaine. "Why did you come to Dalton?" he repeated his question, his voice slower than when he had asked it before, when the mask was not being worn.

This time, Blaine didn't miss a beat. His facial expression stayed in its masked form and his answer came right away, not too soon and not too late. His tone continued to be the same tone that he used in his every day conversations, calm and certain. "Dalton has great academics. We could afford the school. Why not come?" he replied, throwing in a small shrug to top it off. For anyone who did not know Blaine very well, the excuse would have been perfect. He had not even stuttered. Even Sam was slightly thrown off of his trail with the brief thoughts that maybe Blaine was not lying.

Blaine's eyes were blank, they told nothing. They never did. With most people, eyes could tell at least basic emotion. Their eyes could tell stories. They held tears and fears and they glistened in the sunlight and they reflected images back when they were looked in to. Blaine's eyes never did any of that. At least, no one ever saw them do any of that. Everyone who looked in to them always saw the same blank look that he was giving Sam at that moment.

They were careful eyes, eyes devoid of emotion and thought.

At that point, the blankness was getting to Sam. It was starting to feel empty and cold. He couldn't look anymore. The blonde boy blinked his eyes and looked down at the cup of hot chocolate in front of him. He never did like coffee.

"You're not telling me something," he said simply.

Blaine blinked his eyes, careful not to let up his guard. "Are you trying to say that Dalton academics aren't the top academics out there?" His mouth quirked in to a small, fake grin as he tried to hide everything from Sam.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Come on. Tell me." He returned the grin and reached across the table to slap Blaine's left shoulder with his hand.

"It's not important." Blaine untwined his fingers from each other and stood up. He lifted his coffee off the table and pushed his chair underneath in one swift motion. He was about already halfway to the door of the coffee shop that the two were sitting in when he heard the screech of a chair as it slid backwards. He made a point not to turn around to see who it was, already knowing that Sam was coming after him.

Blaine's hand was on the door handle when he felt something on his shoulder. He jumped up at the feeling and was about to bolt out of the door when the feeling became firmer. His eyes closed tightly as if he was waiting for anything to happen.

"Woah, Blaine, dude," Sam said. He retracted his hand from where it was on Blaine's shoulder and pushed his body in front of Blaine's to stop him from moving out any further. Sam's face was directly in front of Blaine's at that point. Blaine's face remained the neutral look that it had had throughout the entire coffee stop. "What?" he asked, seemingly unphased at what had just happened. Somewhere between when Sam had spoken and when Sam had put his body in front of Blaine's, his eyes had opened and he had returned his mask. Sam was too slow to even see the change out of it in the first place.

The shorter boy shrugged his shoulders. "_Dude_," he teased. "I'm heading back to my dorm."

Sam wasn't about to take that as an answer. "You jumped," he told Blaine. He raised an eyebrow slightly. Blaine shrugged his shoulders once more and opened the door behind Sam to leave. He ducked beneath Sam's arm and exited the coffee shop.

"Let's go to the gym," Sam blurted out before Blaine could get very far away from him.

Blaine turned around quickly at the suggestion. "What?" He laughed slightly and rose an eyebrow at his friend.

"Let's go to the gym," Sam repeated himself. He shrugged his shoulders and moved out of the doorway towards Blaine.

Blaine gave a somewhat questioning glance at Sam.

"No way am I missing my daily workouts for you, curly," Sam muttered just loud enough for Blaine to hear as he passed.

In silence, they took the ten minute walk back to Dalton. Sam and Blaine walked next to each other, Blaine staring only straight ahead and Sam watching the other boy carefully as they went. They were nearing the entrance gates when Sam began to run ahead of Blaine. "Meet you in the gym in ten! Be ready to work out!" he called behind him as he bolted up through the gates and through the intricate gardens until he was out of Blaine's sight. He wasn't about to let Blaine give him a 'no' for an answer.

Eleven minutes later, Sam was lifting up what Blaine thought to be a fairly large weight. Both of the boys had managed to change in to their gym clothes and Sam had insisted that Blaine try out the weights.

Blaine's weights, both of a small size compared to any weights, never mind the ones that Sam was using, slowly lifted up in the air and back down to Blaine's side, effortlessly.

Sam looked around the weight room that they were standing in. There was no sight of anyone else in it. Of course no one else would be in it. It was no later than eight on a Saturday morning. Most teenage boys would be asleep at that time. It was why he would always go to the gym early, to avoid the others.

Sam put his weights down on the rack and turned around to close the only door of the room. He leaned against it casually while Blaine watched him from the corner of his eye. Sam grinned as he noticed that he was being watched. "Alright, Blaine. Fess up."

The boy with the curly hair dropped the weights he had been holding and they landed on the mat beneath Blaine's feet with a soft _thump_. Blaine coughed nervously before bending down and picking up the weights again, his neutral face showing all too well to the other boy. "What are you talking about, Sam?"

"Put the mask down or I'll do it for you," Sam warned Blaine in the kindest voice he could muster while still trying to be intimidating. Blaine's eyes slowly began to shift to his feet. "What's up?" Sam began to make his way over to Blaine but Blaine backed up. Sam stopped in his tracks at the distraught boy in front of him.

"I told you, don't worry about it," Blaine reminded him. He blinked and held out another fake grin.


	2. The Gym

Sam raised an eyebrow as Blaine began to pretend that he wasn't even there anymore. The weights lifted up and down again, Blaine eyeing them instead of looking at the blonde haired boy not more than three feet in front of him. It was as if he was fascinated by a naked person dancing in that direction he was so intently looking at the weights.

"Talk to me, dude," Sam demanded. He folded his arms around his chest and waited.

Blaine shrugged his shoulders and continued to lift the small weights in his hands as if they were nothing at all. Well, they were nothing at all. They were the smallest weights that Blaine could find in the weight room.

With a grunt, Sam took the final steps forwards until he was standing in front of Blaine's face. Blaine took the last step backwards until his back hit the wall. He continued to act as if nothing at all had happened, lifting the weights up and down and hitting the wall as he did so. He was so unphased that it was starting to worry Sam even more than before.

Sam's eyes never lifted from Blaine. Blaine's eyes never lifted from the weights. Somehow, a mystery even to Blaine, the neutral face remained. The lot of it was there: blank eyes, carefully calm smile (if what was on his face could even be called a smile), expressionless. Blaine was undisturbed, at least on the outside.

His inside was screaming for help. He wasn't ready for this talk. He didn't want anyone to know. It was too soon. He knew that it had to be a secret. He didn't want a repeat of everything that had happened before. Too much had happened before.

Suddenly, he felt like the walls were closing in on him, refusing to let him move. He knew why. Sam was right there, hovering and watching and not leaving the poor transfer student alone. If Blaine had wanted to, he was sure that he would be able to kiss the boy without moving his feet at all to do so. But he didn't want to do that. One, Sam was his best friend and he would never violate him like that. And two, he was way too frightened to even consider such a thing. He hadn't been so scared since he had started at Dalton four months back. Then there was three, Sam was straight, like most other guys in the world, making Blaine feel even more alone at that very moment than the thought ever had before.

Sam would never be able to fully understand anything that Blaine would try to tell him about what had happened, if Blaine would ever try to tell him what had happened.

Blaine flinched, visibly. Sam took notice of it and took a single step backwards, still extremely close to the frightened boy in front of him. Quietly, in a barely audible voice this time, Sam asked the question once more. "Blaine, why did you come to Dalton?"

Blaine's hands dropped the weights for a second time only this time, he made no effort to reach down and pick them up after they had hit the floor with a clang. "Now's now the time, Sam," the boy mumbled in reply. He blinked his eyes a few times, surely to try to hide any tears that might have been trying to surface. As he did so, he tried to take a step to the left to escape from Sam's closeness.

Sam was insistent, though. He refused to let Blaine escape. Before Blaine had the chance to move away, Sam's arms were on either side of the wall, successfully trapping Blaine in his place.

The neutral eyes disappeared from Sam's view as Blaine squeezed them shut. Blaine's body tensed up and he pushed himself further back in to the wall.

"I don't care. No one's around. The door's shut and it's just me and you in here. Tell me before I go all superhero on you." Sam grinned, though he really didn't know why he did so. He was getting more and more nervous, especially now that the way Blaine was acting could be misinterpreted in no ways. He was obviously terrified.

The curly head of hair shook back and forth. A normal head shake lasted one or two turns. This one was much more than that, way more. Blaine wasn't stopping his head as it continued to shake. Slowly, tears began to fall from his eyes. "No," he said through the sobs. "You'll just… you'll just… you'll just ignore… me… leave me… forget me… hurt me. Like the others."

Sam chose to ignore the words that Blaine was saying as tears flowed from the closed eyelids more and more and the rate of them quickened. Sobs escaped through his lips. Blaine looked helpless and Sam _was _helpless just staring at the crying boy in front of him. What was he supposed to say to him? He had never been in this kind of situation before. He had no idea that what he was doing to the boy would lead to _this_ mess. All he wanted was a reason for the boy's arrival at Dalton all those months ago.

Blaine began to lean down to put his head in to his hands but Sam stopped him.

The blonde moved quickly. His arms were around the smaller boy in almost no time at all. Blaine's head fit in to the empty space between Sam's shoulder and neck. His arms were stuck to his sides as Sam held them down in the hug. "I'm… sorry," Blaine muttered between sobs as he tried to fight back the tears. Sam only held the boy in place, patting his back reassuringly as he did so, lost as to if he should say something or not.

After the tears had ended, Sam pulled away from Blaine. "Now tell me what happened," he demanded, staring straight in to Blaine's eyes.

The curly hair went back and forth as Blaine, once again, shook his head in constant motion.

"Blaine…" Sam spoke warningly. Blaine blinked. He stopped shaking his head and bent down to grab the weights that he had dropped. He looked back up at Sam, shrugged his shoulders, and went back to lifting the weights as if nothing had happened.

The neutral face had reappeared. The mask had returned nearly to full force, the only bits from before that remained were the swollen eyelids and the occasional sobs that came from Blaine. Sam swore under his breath as he took a couple of steps backwards to give Blaine some space.

"Well, I'll be in my dorm, if you want to talk," Sam told the boy in front of him, stepping backwards again as he did so, heading towards the door. "Consider my door always open." Sam let out a faint smile as Blaine nodded his head slightly. He took another step backwards. Blaine looked away from where Sam was leaving and back at the weights in his hands.

"Remember that."

A few more steps were taken and Sam turned around to face the door. As he opened it up and made to leave, he watched from the corner of his eye as Blaine slouch down to the floor and put his head in his hands. His knees were pulled forwards in to his chest and a large sob came out of his throat.

"My door is open," Sam called behind him before closing the door to give Blaine space to cry alone.

Sam took only two steps out of the door before he stopped walking and leaned against one of the walls in the hall. Ten minutes later, he still leaned there, waiting for Blaine to come out of the weight room after him. Only, it wasn't happening. Sam didn't think that it would but he wanted to give the other boy a chance anyways. Giving up with a sigh, Sam turned away and walked towards his dorm. This was going to be harder than he thought.


	3. Isn't she so hot?

Blaine took a deep breath. He had to do this. He knew that he had to do this. He had to get it over with. Rip the band aid off before he became too attached to Sam, right? Because a zero tolerance no bullying policy didn't extend to friendships ending because of a past that finally became revealed.

He wasn't ready for this. He had to turn around. But he was already so close. He was pacing in front of Sam's dorm room door. It wasn't opened as promised but he knew that it was just an expression. Blaine knew that if he were to knock on the door at that instant, Sam would open it up and invite him in. And then Blaine could tell Sam everything about his past. And then Sam could throw him out of the room and say that he wasn't allowed back in.

It was that simple.

The thought of possible acceptance didn't cross Blaine's mind. It wasn't going to go that way. He knew it from the start.

The curly haired boy was pacing in front of the door to Sam's room when he heard a creek coming from it. His head turned slightly towards it, just in time to see Sam's head pop out and back in and then the door opening fully. Sam gave a happy smile and gestured to Blaine to enter the room.

Blaine's feet stopped in their place and refused to move as if they were glued to the floor. '_Go, Blaine. Go. You can do it,_' he silently told himself. One of his feet lifted up less than an inch before going back down on the floor.

"Blaine!" Sam yelled out excitedly. He grinned. "I was just about to watch The Dark Knight. Have you seen it?"

"No, is it good?" Blaine asked, taking a step towards the open door that Sam was backing away out of.

Sam nodded his head, his blonde hair getting in his eyes and forcing him to shake his head to get it out. "Come on!" He closed the distance between the two and pulled on Blaine's hand to drag him in to the room. Blaine let out a small smile and let himself be dragged in.

When Sam pushed Blaine on to the bed to sit down, Blaine looked up uncomfortably. Sam didn't seem to notice so Blaine let himself sit there on the edge with Sam sitting against the headboard. When Sam urged Blaine to sit further back, Blaine did so with minimum hesitation. But when Sam leaned forwards towards the end of the movie when it was Rachel's last scene and whispered in to Blaine's ear "Isn't she so hot?" with a grin, Blaine squirmed.

"I'm gay," he muttered. His voice was barely able to be heard by himself so when, out of the corner of his eye he saw Sam shrug his shoulders, he couldn't help but wonder if Sam had some sort of super hearing ability that he never mentioned before. He was about to get mad at Sam for not mentioning it before when he realized that _hey!_ He had just outted himself and he wasn't being asked (read: forced) to leave the room, or at least off of the bed.

"Hmm…" Sam's voice said with a mixture of amusement and sternness. Blaine gulped. This was the moment he was waiting for - the big 'out or else' moment. "Alright. Is Bruce Wayne hot then?"

Blaine's head swung around in disbelief to look at Sam. The movie still played on the television in front of both of them but it was obvious that neither of them was paying any attention to it. The sound that it had been making turned in to purely background noise as the two stared at each other. Sam was waiting for an answer and Blaine was unsure of what to say. He'd never met someone who didn't make a big fuss about his gayness.

Blaine ran his hand through his curls and bit his lip. "Yes," he murmured.

Sam once again shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the movie as if nothing had happened. Blaine, however, refused to let his eyes leave Sam. He was waiting for something – the eruption, the yelling, the telling off, the "go to hell", the "get out", and the word "fag" to be thrown freely at him.

As the ending credits rolled on the TV, Sam pressed the power button on the remote to turn it off and looked over at the boy who hadn't stopped staring at him. "Is there something in my teeth?" Sam joked, opening his mouth to show off his teeth.

A shake of the head from Blaine told him otherwise.

"Did I do something wrong?" Sam dropped the remote on the bed and crawled in front of Blaine to sit down cross legged in front of Blaine on the bed so that their knees hit.

Blaine shook his head once again to tell Sam that he had done nothing wrong. This shake was subtle and light, just barely there. The curls on the top of his head barely moved. His eyes stayed focused on Sam's arms, refusing to look at the other boy's face for fear of looking in his eyes. If he learned one thing in all of his 'adventures', it was that looking in someone's eyes was usually a bad thing.

Sam urged his knees forwards so they pushed on Blaine's slightly. "Say something?" he asked quietly. Sorrow was in his tone. "Tell me what I did. I promise. I won't do it again." He held up his right hand until it was next to his head and the palm faced outwards towards Blaine. "Scouts honor." He grinned once more.

A small smile showed up on Blaine's lips. Cautiously, he reached forwards and pushed down the hand that Sam was holding up. "I never was a boy scout," he admitted wearily.

The blonde boy shrugged his shoulders. "Me neither. It doesn't mean I can't be honorable."

Blaine smiled again but once again said not a word. He kept his eyes away from Sam's gaze.

Sam watched him carefully as an awkward silence filled the room. Now that the movie had ended and the boys weren't speaking, there was no sound. It stayed that way for a few minutes before Sam decided that he had to break the silence. "So, you really think that Christian Bale is hot?" he asked the boy in front of him with a grin.

Blaine backed up until his back was hitting the post at the end of the bed. He pulled his knees up to his chest and held them there. His head fit in to his knees and he continued his silent streak.

"Why are you scared?" Sam questioned, raising his eyebrow and not daring to move forwards to the boy on his bed because he didn't want to scare him even more. For the first time that day, Blaine's walls were knocked down and a look of fright crossed his face.

Finally, Blaine spoke up. He lifted his head from his knees slightly, just enough to see Sam's face, and spoke in a whisper. "If you want me to leave, I can leave. Don't tell anyone. Please." He put his head in to his knees once again as a tear began to streak down his face.

A puzzled look crossed Sam's face. "Why would I want you to leave?" He scotched himself closer to Blaine but still kept his distance. Blaine shook his head in his knees and let out a sob. What was happening clicked in Sam's brain, finally. "You know, Blaine, I don't care if you're gay. You know, as long as you don't care if I'm straight." He stayed still, waiting for some sort of a reaction from the boy in front of him.

"No one is fine with me being gay. You're no exceptions. It's a rule. No one can be fine with me being gay," Blaine mumbled. He slowly lifted his head up from his legs to reveal his tear streaked face and puffy red eyes and looked at Sam, this time in the face.

It took all of the effort that Sam had not to jump up and hug the boy in front of him. Something was telling him that it would be a bad idea. So instead, he bit his bottom lip and caught eye contact with the boy. "I don't care," he repeated.

The two boys continued to stare at each other. Slowly, Sam made his way up the bed and in front of Blaine once again. "So what about Johnny Depp? My mom has a huge crush on him."

Blaine stared at the boy in front of him in awe before shaking his head slightly and letting his knees drop down in front of him. "Not my type," he told Sam weakly.

"So, do you want to tell me why you left your old school?" Sam asked uncertainly.

The answer that he received was fast, to the point, and nothing further was said after it. "No." Without hesitation, Blaine leapt off of the bed and left through the door, leaving Sam behind.

**I see Sam as bisexual when I'm watching Glee but as this is about Blaine and not Sam, I'm leaving that out. It is non-important.**


	4. Princess

**I hate that it has taken me so long to update this. I've been busy with my school's musical and haven't had the time recently. So, here goes nothing.**

Sam was pacing in front of Blaine's dorm room door. The door was closed and locked but movement could be heard inside of the room. Sam knew for a fact that Blaine's roommate Joseph had already left for the summer and the cleaners were not due to clean the dorm rooms until Sunday. It was only Wednesday. That meant that, behind the door, there had to be a short, curly haired boy. A boy that went by the name of Blaine.

He stopped pacing and knocked on the door again before waiting a few seconds. The noise that had been within the room became lower but was still able to be heard. The rustling of papers became louder and then something fell loudly from what Sam presumed was a shelf. He knocked on the door again but still the lock wasn't clicked open.

"Blaine, open this door now!" he called.

More rustling came through the door before the click of the lock was heard. Carefully, Sam stepped in to the room, trying to avoid everything on the floor. The task was proving near impossible when he heard a squeak coming from underneath his feet. "Blaine," he started to say, lifting up his foot and bending down to pick up the toy. "I didn't know that you have a dog."

Blaine looked over at the blonde haired boy a few feet away. "I don't," he said simply before moving around and picking up one of the piles of sheet music that were sitting at his feet.

Sam looked questionably at the toy in his hand before throwing it in to the box of garbage in front of the bed. "I didn't know that you were such a pack rat," Sam said quietly. He inched his way across the messy floor and to the bed, taking a seat on it only after he moved away two binders and a copy of Alice Sebold's _The Lovely Bones_. "Please tell me that some of this junk is Joseph's and he forgot to clean it up before he left."

Blaine shook his head as he placed the pile of sheet music in to a box and added the second pile in to the same box. "Let's just say that the highly organized me is part of a mask." He grinned. "You should have seen my room before Joseph moved out. It was clean. Everything was all sorted out on the shelves and in drawers. Let's be thankful that it was Joseph to move out first so I can use his space to organize, eh?" He closed up the box with the sheet music on it and taped over the top before pulling out a permanent marker and labeling it.

"Coffee?" Sam suggested. "You could use a break."

The curly haired boy looked around his room questionably. "Only if you help me to finish cleaning all of this later." He gave a hopeful smile.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Of course, princess." Blaine's face went in to a momentary pause before he put his mask on. Sam let out a barely audible sigh and led the way out of the dorm.

"I'm telling you! Batman beats Spiderman any day!"

Blaine held his head down in shame as he unlocked his dorm room door and turned a light on. "Spiderman has spidey powers. That makes him better than Batman."

Sam's jaw fell slightly. "You were one of those kids who went around for weeks before Halloween dressed up as Spiderman, weren't you?"

The dark haired boy looked down guiltily as he picked up a box and moved it out of the way so that the two could move further in to the room. He ignored the dirty blonde's laughter coming from behind him. "Are you going to help me or not?" he asked, leaning against Sam's shoulder slightly as if to urge him forwards.

Sam walked in, careful to avoid the mess on the ground, and turned around to face Blaine. "So, are there any pictures?" He grinned.

Blaine shook his head. "None that you will ever see." He turned around and closed the door to the room.

Silently, the mess on the room began to be removed. Boxes became piled up and the floor began to be able to be seen once again. The silence was covered up by Blaine's iPod playing quiet tunes to musicals in the background.

'Two days, Sam. You only have two days to get him to speak up!' Sam reminded himself in his head. 'So what if he's mad at you over the summer? It's not like you'll see him at all anyways. Get the answer.' Sam looked over at the boy cleaning out a drawer, shaking his head with the beat of the music that he loved for some reason that Sam wasn't sure of. 'He really thought that I didn't know he was gay before he told me.' He let out a secretive grin.

"Why did you go in to masked Blaine when I called you princess earlier?" Sam asked from his position on the floor. He kept his eyes carefully trained on Blaine as he spoke.

The other boy turned around to face Sam. "Huh?" he questioned after a pause.

Sam shook his head. "You know what I'm talking about. I know you do. Tell me why you put your mask on when I called you princess earlier."

Blaine shrugged.

"You know. You know that I was teasing." He gave a half smile. "Come on, Blaine. Talk to me."

Blaine became wordless, turning away so that Sam couldn't see his face and pretending that he didn't hear what Sam was saying.

"Blaine!" Sam warned. He jumped off of the floor and towards his friend. "Come on, dude."

No reply came.

"Come on!" Sam repeated.

Again, no reply came.

Sam decided to take matters in to his own hands. He walked in front of where Blaine was facing and looked directly in to the boy's eyes. "Are you… are you crying?" he asked quietly, sitting down and reaching forwards to take the tears out of the other boy's eyes. Blaine flinched away, causing Sam to retract his hand. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Sam said, only too quickly.

"_They_ called me 'princess'," he murmured.

"Who is 'they'?" Sam questioned, reaching forwards once again to take the tears away and this time being allowed to.

Blaine blinked as another tear ran down his face. "I'm _gay_, Sam. Who do you think?" he asked, this time much louder.

"Students?" Sam suggested. Blaine let out a bitter nod. "Teachers?" Blaine shook his head. "Your parents?" Blaine looked down at his lap and the tears came down faster.

Sam wanted to reach forwards and pull the boy in to a huge hug. He wanted to tell him that nothing like that would ever happen again. He wanted to console him and tell him that everything would be fine. He didn't want to lie, but he knew that if he said any of those things, he would be. So he stayed quiet and seated in front of Blaine, waiting to see if he would say anything.

Minutes passed where nothing could be heard besides the background music of Broadway musicals and the quiet sobs of Blaine. Sam was getting desperate to say something but he stopped himself. Finally, it was Blaine who spoke. "I told one person," he said quietly and between the sobs. "He was my best friend. And he called me a f-". He stuttered over the word. "A fag. I thought he would be quiet about it. I thought that he, of all people would accept me." Blaine shook his head. He paused before continuing. "He told Kyle. He was the biggest bully in school. We were all in eighth grade. Top of the nest?" He let out a small, fake grin. "Kyle would push me in to the lockers. He locked me in closets. One time, I was going to get my science book during last period on a Friday. I left my phone in class. And he was in the hallway. He pushed me in to a closet and left me there. He forgot about me. A janitor rescued me hours later."

The tears began to flow more freely. Blaine wasn't trying to keep them back any longer. Sam was looking at him sadly, hoping for him to continue.

"It got worse when I reached high school," he began again after a pause. "I was used to the names and the pushing. I wasn't used to the tossing in to dumpsters. It was getting to be too much…" He wiped his tears away with the sleeve to his blazer. "Mom and dad… they found out. Mom was fine with me being gay. She didn't like the bullying but she didn't do anything to stop it." He let out a large sob. "Dad was worse than the bullies at school. He would bring me to church every day for hours, saying that God would cure me. Every Sunday, he would pour holy water on me. Every Saturday, he would lock me in a dark closet for the entire day. Every Wednesday, he would beat me. Every other day, he would threaten me. And every single day, he would tell me how worthless I was." His tears began to flow quickly.

Blaine wiped his eyes from his face once again with his blazer. The summer going in to this year, he sent me to a conversion camp." Sam's mouth opened up. Blaine shook his head and ducked it in to his knees. "That's where I'm going from here for the summer. He doesn't want me home." He let out a large sob that was louder than the rest of the ones he had let out that day. "It's terrible there."

Sam made a reach to hug Blaine but Blaine put his hands in front of himself to stop Sam from doing so and shook his head. "They finally let me leave my old school and come to Dalton. So I transferred. But before I transferred…" he trailed off. Sam gave him a questioning look. Blaine shook his head again. "It's stupid."

Blaine's right hand hovered over the arm of his left blazer. "It's really stupid." He pulled the sleeve back and revealed his arm to Sam. "I would cut to let out the pain," he explained. His right hand's fingers hovered over each scar that remained, some raised above the skin and others just marks. There were at least twenty visible scars and more were hidden beneath them. Some looked like they could be no more than a couple of months old. "It's stupid, but it helped me cope." He rolled the sleeve back down to cover up the scars and looked back down at his lap.

"I tried suicide. That's what got me sent here," Blaine added. "I tried to swallow sleeping pills, but mom found me too soon."

The blonde haired boy looked uncertainly at his friend. "Do you wish that she hadn't of found you?" he whispered. Silence followed and Sam took it as 'yes'. "I'm here. Escape to my house if you need to," he offered.

"Please, don't tell anyone," Blaine begged, looking up from his lap and straight in to Sam's eyes. The tears had stopped and were drying across his cheeks. His eyes were red and puffy.

Sam shook his head. "I promise."

**One more chapter left 'til completion.**


End file.
